We weren't dumb enough to vote Kerry

[Jeffrho]

Another great Steyn column...


We weren't dumb enough to vote Kerry
By Mark Steyn
(Filed: 09/11/2004)

Last week, you may recall, I quoted Bob Kerrey - not the Kerry who was running for president, but a fellow senator and Vietnam veteran and a big backer of his near-namesake. This Kerrey was on television a couple of days before the election and claimed to have the pulse of the man in the street.

<SCRIPT language=javascript src="/core/NetGravity/mpu.js"></SCRIPT>"I was in Gallia, Ohio, down in the southeastern part of Ohio," he said. "They don't give a damn about the war in Iraq. They're terrified about the loss of their job, health care, their pensions. That's what's bothering them."

I begged to differ: "In fact," I wrote, "the people - in Gallia, Ohio and many other places - understand the relevance of Iraq and Afghanistan to their well-being rather more clearly than the Democratic leadership do."

Just for the record, on Tuesday, in Gallia County, Ohio, George W Bush won 62 per cent of the vote.

It wasn't the economy, stupid. It was the stupidity, stupid. No man is an island, but the Democrats expect voters to act as if they are. Don't think about national security and war and Iraq and Iran and North Korea - that's all way beyond a loser like you. You're too "terrified" about your job to be bothered with the foreign pages. It's practically the Depression out there.

OK, it's not. But it's a recession. OK, it's not. But there aren't any jobs out there. OK, there are. But they're not like the jobs you used to have, when you could go to the mill and do the same job day in day out for 45 years, and it made it so much easier for us come election time because there were large numbers of you all in the same place when we flew in for the campaign stop. But the point is: you are an island, stick to "pocketbook issues", think about yourself.

STORY (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;sessionid=QJ0RC1NVXX55FQFIQMFCM54AVCBQY JVC?xml=/opinion/2004/11/09/do0902.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2004/11/09/ixopinion.html)

[DoctorDoom]

Steyn is on my A-list of favorite columnists. He must really scorch Brit butts with his columns.

[Warlady]

Last week, you may recall, I quoted Bob Kerrey - not the Kerry who was running for president, but a fellow senator and Vietnam veteran and a big backer of his near-namesake. This Kerrey was on television a couple of days before the election and claimed to have the pulse of the man in the street.

"I was in Gallia, Ohio, down in the southeastern part of Ohio," he said. "They don't give a damn about the war in Iraq. They're terrified about the loss of their job, health care, their pensions. That's what's bothering them."

I begged to differ: "In fact," I wrote, "the people - in Gallia, Ohio and many other places - understand the relevance of Iraq and Afghanistan to their well-being rather more clearly than the Democratic leadership do."

Just for the record, on Tuesday, in Gallia County, Ohio, George W Bush won 62 per cent of the vote.
Hahahahahaha this reminds me of Bill Richardson, Gov of New Mexico. He stated on Fox News that he was going to call his state for Kerry because quote "I know my state" unquote. Guess he doesn't know it as well as he thought. LOL

The American people don't want to be condescended to by ketchup heiresses, billionaire currency speculators, $20-million-a-picture Hollywood pretty boys, and multi-millionaire documentary-makers posing as bluecollar lardbutts.

The Democrats keep talking to people as if they're like John Edwards's 40-year mill-workers, but that's not what work is any more, and a 23-year-old hairdresser can know enough about starting and running a business to be unimpressed at a few footling tax credits dangled in front of her by a 60-year-old lifelong "public servant" lucky enough to be living a grand old life thanks to his billionaire wife's first husband.He sure nails it doesn't he?

[Maggie_T]

Steyn is on my A-list of favorite columnists. He must really scorch Brit butts with his columns.
I agree, Doc. I heard him several times on Hannity's radio show. Steyn really knows how to kick liberals @$$. :)

[Wyatt_Junker]

Pinch your nose, then read my quote...

"Hey, government, can you get me a jawb?"

That's what it sounds like to be a democrat nerd. 48% of the punks who voted actually believe that lie.

And here's the asskicker that proves it.


Secondly, assume for a moment that Bob Kerrey was right - that voters in Gallia County really were "terrified about the loss of their job, health care, their pensions". Even if that's true, do you want the government to do anything about it? In many Continental countries, it's all but impossible to lose your job - which is why so many companies are reluctant to hire anyone and Germany's unemployment rate is twice that of America. And once healthcare and pensions are the province of the government, the basic relationship between the citizen and the state is altered. By 2040, Greece's government pension liabilities will be 25 per cent of GDP, as opposed to 6.8 per cent for America, which is quite colossal enough, thank you.

So even if I was "terrified" of losing my job, healthcare, pension, etc, I'd be reluctant to let the government relieve me of my terror. On the Continent, the mainstream parties of Tweedleleft and Tweedleright, having spent half a century ruling more and more issues beyond the subject of debate, can't quite bring themselves to tell the truth to the voters about the looming crisis.

They reckon that the masses have become too used to 35-hour work-weeks, two months of holiday, you leave college at 36, take early retirement at 47, etc, and that they won't take kindly to being told the jig's up. The Daily Mirror may think American voters are "DUMB", but I'll bet in the chancelleries of Europe there are plenty of officials who wish their own electors would occasionally disdain "pocketbook issues". Once you've turned citizens into junkies for government crack, it's very hard to wean them off it.